Howard Chaykin, comics, design and IA
Excerpt from “the paradigm” by Howard Chaykin
I stayed up late last night for the chance to watch Howard Chaykin talk about paradigms. Listening to a comic legend talk about how he works whilst virtually surrounded by comic artists on a Zoom call made me feel a like a bit of an imposter (thinks: I’m just a fan - some of these folks are here to learn and apply themselves!)
The event was run by Talent Talk, yet another one of these great online event organisers that seem to be springing up all over the place in response to our enforced state of isolation in 2020. I can’t quite remember how I stumbled across this particular event - a tweet most likely - but I just saw the words “Howard” and “Chaykin” and I was all over it.
Howard Chaykin
I guess not everyone will know who Howard Chaykin is. He’s not as well known outside of the english-speaking comic world as the likes of Frank Miller or Alan Moore despite having exceeded their contributions in many respects. Inside comics though, and particularly amongst artists, he is among the greats. An accomplished artist, writer, entrepeneur and irascible sage who carries the knowledge of comic craftsmanship from an earlier age into the present day.
I first came across his work when I bought a second-hand illustrated edition of Alfred Bester’s The Star’s My Destination. I love the original story and was excited to learn that they had made a comic adaptation. Well, it wasn’t quite that… it was something much more. There was so much going on in terms of the page layouts, use of picture panels and illustration style that it felt like a wildly experimental use of form that you don’t see very often and few people have the chutzpah and talent to pull it off.
I’ve followed his work ever since, devouring his older work like American Flagg as well as new stuff like The Divided States of Hysteria that continues to to push the boundaries.
“A comic artist is a graphic designer in the service of narrative ”
Pictographic narrative
The subject of the talk Howard gave was “the paradigm” - his encapsulation of a graphical design archetype that lies at the heart of storytelling in comics. The paradigm is equal parts page/panel layout, story sequencing logic and visual design approach.
One of the key points he made was that comics are a form of pictographic narrative. This builds on some of the thinking of the like of Will Eisner and Art Spiegelman who have offered a similar analysis of the complexity behind the craft of comics. Howard was perhaps a little more straightforward in how he elaborated on this stating that his belief is that comic artists are “graphic designers in the service of narrative”. I mean, wow, what a perspective! A pragmatic view of comics as both a job and a higher calling.
Despite the late hour for me ( I think it was about 6pm in New York but 11pm in the UK) I was really buzzing with some of the stuff Howard was laying on us. He was very up for being challenged as well - inviting questions and comments from the audience in pugilistic fashion but only a few dared. On top of discussing the paradigm and using some examples of his own work to bring the idea to life, he was riffing on the history of comics, the business of working for the big publishers and dropping names and anecdotes with the casual respect of a veteran who knows he is among the greats. It got even better for me though.
Comics and information architecture
A few years ago I gave a talk for World IA day on what comics can teach information architecture. For me this represented a kind of zenith for my personal and professional passions. Like most talks I have done, it was a digest of what I had been reading at the time sprinkled with some knowing references of relevance to an audience of thoughtful design folk. It was also an opportunity to insert my own personal story into a presentation, something I tend to shy away from. In short, here was my life in comics.
Back to Howard though. Towards the end of the hour, my attention was starting to wane a little as tiredness was catching up with me. Then he mentioned a name that got my attention - Richard Saul Wurman. Howard was talking about how much he admired the information design of the Access city guidebooks that RSW had produced. And the circle was complete once again. Here was a comic book legend mentioning one of the founders of information architecture.
After the talk wrapped up I couldn’t sleep so I dug out a video of my talk and watched it over again for the first time since I presented it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that despite all the things I didn’t know back then, I felt I did justice to the medium of comics and all the incredible creators. Even though I didn’t mention Howard. Maybe that’s reason enough for a sequel at some point.